Five Years of Indie Game Development - Sapiens
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- čas přidán 11. 06. 2024
- Wishlist now on Steam! Link is below.
With the addition of farming, seasons, life cycles, genetics, improved AI, house building, full modding support, chickens, hunting, crafting, and a whole bunch more, 2019 Was a very productive year.
Five years down, one to go?
In Sapiens, evolve your primitive hunter gatherers through thousands of years of technological advancement. Feed, protect and grow your tribe, build towns and industry, and advance through the ages in this first person civilization building god game for PC. Play with your friends in co-operative or competitive multiplayer, all on a procedurally generated planet larger than Earth.
Original Score by John Konsolakis www.johnkonsolakis.eu
Wishlist on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/10...
Sapiens website: playsapiens.com
Follow on twitter: @playsapiens or @majicDave
Sapiens Discord / discord
Mod development repository: github.com/mjdave/sapiens-mod...
Developer website: majicjungle.com - Hry
Indie devs:
- dont scale your projects to big
- steer away from open word games
- use existing game engines
- start with a simple concept and expand from there
Dave:
Basically recreates earth by himself in his own game engine with VR support
Err.... what's a "open word games"
I feel like people making their own game engine get better performances regarding their games.
@@ahbir100 open world games are like Minecraft, Skyrim etc. Basically mean a game witha big map, that you can do missions and other thing u like
@@ahbir100 wow you're so clever and funny for pointing out a typo
But I like making open world games, ngl handy tips tho
So you say you want feedback? Well...
I have a few passing observations:
1. I think the nomadic play style will be a bigger deal than you think, given the huge auto generated world you create every game is ripe for exploring. As time goes on, these people could become silk road traders or something similar.
2. This is probably way in the future for you, but I think as things progress, the player will not want to have to place every single wall, or every single crop. Thinking in advance about how to give "place house" or "build field" options might be useful. Unless you don't plan on having that may sapiens per game?
3. Down time. If everyone is moving all the time, it looks like an ant colony. i think adding sapien motivation for tasks like sitting, talking, and playing ball would go a long way towards improving the feel of the game.
4. Weather will be awesome. I'm looking forward to it.
5. You are probably sick of rivers right now after putting so much work into them, but I don't think they are quite done. Something as fundamental to your game as the rivers has the potential to do more than just be a pretty background. The first civilizations used canals from the rivers to water their plants, and the Egyptians just waited for their river to flood to repair the soil. The mesopotanians, in the other hand, lived in fear of their river flooding.
I guess what I'm saying is that there are many opportunities for rivers to effect gameplay. I get dynamic water is ludicrously difficult though...
6. Keep it up! These videos are a ton of fun to watch, and I eagerly await the time in a year or so from now when I can get my hands on it.
Hey Man, this is a great comment and really well written.
Just really nice to see
A cool idea would be that all tribes would eventually turn into mighty civilizations or empires. Like the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans.
Especially the nomadic play is an important thing to aim at. This will add a lot of diversity in the genpool of the sapiens. I really think this is even needed. Not every tribe needs to be nomadic. There just needs to be a refreshment of the genpool from time to time.
Add events like Rimworld to this and its goood
For #2 perhaps a way to save a blueprint of a structure would work?
5 years man, I hope you will get the reward of your labor
i will definitely download the cracked version .
@@artmario same
@Flat0ut Imagine not understanding sarcasm.... How disgusting....
@Flat0ut if you cant afford it then the next best way is cracking it. dont tell me you have never heard of someone cracking a game before buying it to support the developers. also you can tell this guys project is a hobby, not a commercial product. He will not be financially depondent on it.
@@vincentjenei No that is not how something works you don't go any where and say I want this for free because I cant afford it but I can afford something that costs way more than this (in this case - a computer).
One man did this in 5 years, imagine if he had a team under him for that time.
Cyberpunk 2077 is the kind of thing you can do in that amount of time with a big dev team, in case you wonder
@@pirateKaiser
That game isn't even out yet, why do people like you keep hyping it up? Y'all are just asking for disappointment. Never put your expectations onto other peoples' own art unless you want to be let down.
Sometimes a team makes things slower, because of all the meetings and coordination.
What one man can do in 5 years, two men can do it in 10
Id join that team
Thats extremely impressive that you have remained focused on Sapiens for 5 years as a solo dev. Have a good break Christmass! If you're over Hamilton ways any time would love to shake your hand or do a Sapiens wave :D
I can't believe it's been so long; I remember the queue markers and 3d UI being added. I will definitely buy this; it's on my wishlist
With your sincere dedication, I'm sure you'll achieve everything you've been working so hard for.
This is one of the most beautiful promises of a game I've seen and heard of for a very long time and we've got you to thank for it, Dave.
So thank you.
I really appreciate that, thanks!
Instead of snow “popping” onto tiles could you make some kind of slow transition? Maybe it could be applied for leaves also
I think the dude has enough on his plate..
Joo Jewce something to add though
This is a cool idea, if he has time....
God the visuals are so beautiful. After watching the dev blogs for so long I feel more of a connection to this game than any game I've played recently.
Wow, I love this project so far! Here’s what I think:
1. The open world is definitely interesting, I think if you add a way to advance your tribe into a civilisation as time goes on, exploration will become a big deal for sure
2. It’s a big thing, but I think developing the ecosystems by adding more animals and predators would make the world feel more alive
3. Since you have different biomes, have different materials for buildings, like clay in more arid areas
4. Going off of the civilisation idea, add ores for metallurgy, and perhaps have ores be realistically distributed around the world (i.e. some parts of the world would have more copper or gold than others).
Honestly, good luck on this and I look forward for the release!
I’m thinking that one animal evolution game where you start as a small organism and become a galactic empire but instead just prehistoric humans to basic functioning societies, maybe the map could even scale up as you progress and the people would become more independent. The scope of this game is so amazing it could go in a thousand different directions and still be great.
Clorox Bleach human spore?
Here’s my feedback for this AMAZING looking game
1. I think the idea of being able to switch to different tribes(you briefly mentioned that) is a GREAT idea, that would make your game so much more unique than others. I’m picturing someone building up certain cities and then having them trade and eventually form their own country or for the crazy people, you could have a function where cities could go to war. So I’d strongly suggest you give the individual tribes a way to progress on their own!
2. WEATHER, when you mentioned it, I had about 1000 ideas. You could have natural disasters like floods.
3. Volcanoes, this may seem weird but volcanoes are so important to planets. They create land and I think that would be a great aspect to add. You could have dormant volcanoes that become active, forcing you to move your tribe to a safer location. Teaching the player a good life lesson of learning to adjust and problem solve
4. Expand your team, you’ve been working on this for 5 years and with the growing support for this game, you need more people to grow this game faster. I would suggest only adding close friends as you clearly care a lot about this game and wouldn’t want your baby in the hands of a stranger.
This game has so much potential that it’s killing me, I’ve never been so excited for a game before. This could be the next fortnite or Minecraft!
I love the idea of having the tribes advance on their own!! And I really I agree with you on adding more people to the team! Amazing suggestions.
That's really great advice
Oh God please dont make this game into another fucking battle royale
Extremely impressive! All the backend work during those 5 years is going to pay dividends for your future games.
Exactly, future proofing your game with a better engine and mod support is such a good move in the long run. It’s disappointing that a lot of developers don’t make their stuff mod friendly because one they stop supporting their games the communities slowly die. Happens over and Over again
Man have been in and out of working with computer graphics for 1.5yrs now, but this video has motivated me to sit down and do something finally! Kudos to you man! Great job!
I'm so God damn ready to give you my money for this masterpiece in the making
subbed from your 4 year video. watched every update since it released. i love seeing the progress youve made. keep up the great effort dave!
I am not a game developer, but vlogs such yours is very refreshing to watch.
The background music is spot on.
Thank you
Oh man, the village at the end is really nice! I hope there is a need to have some walls/fences later in the game :)
I just realized that I've followed your work for at least 4 years now. first video I've seen about your game was this one 2:55.
I regret nothing ! this actually was one of milestones in my art education :) Thank you for doing this
I can't wait to see where you'll take this game Dave. Great work man!
Jeez! I'm so stoked for this game! And I am also very sad that I dont know how to program propperly, because I would love to make mods for this. There are so many awesome features you can have in this game; nutritional things, different building styles based upon starting locations etc! I love the game already! :D
It's never too late to learn!
@@jacksondean423 exactly!
man that timelapse at the beginning is something... really beautiful. You become a god my friend. You created a whole world.
I see how much thought, passion, and love you've put into this project. I'm just starting my first leg of my journey to my own dream project, and this has helped inspire me to make mine as great as it can be. Keep up the hard work!
Started following this development last year thanks to the CZcams algorithm, and one year later, I can say I’m still thoroughly impressed!! Keep up the good work!
Glad you actually talk about your game. A lot of developers keep their game really secret but this just makes me wanna play your game more! :) It seems really nice already and hopefully we can try the game out ourselves soon. Keep up the work man! :D
I mean, at this point it's just called marketing...
@@happybunnywabbit A lot of small developers keep their games secret too. I would say it's bad marketing if you don't even know what the game is about. Bigger developers such as Activision or CD Projekt Red also keeps their newest titles away from the audience, but they also talk about their games so you actually get to know what they're working on. I would say this guy is doing amazing, and talking about his game is great :)
Nice breakdown of those 5 years. Your dedication to this project is admirable!
You could even sell this engine by the looks of it. Dayum! Really cool work.
Edit: License it to other indy devs, that is. Don't sell out, please.
Your progress is awesome!
I'm making my game project for 2 years now and hope to start showing it on youtube soon too.
Can’t believes it’s now been over a year since I started following your progress! Will definitely be buying this game! Keep up the superb work! 😁
This game looks epic, OD you didn't already I think a great mechanic would be the AI's skills, for exame, the more they hunt, the better their accuracy is
Wow, I can already feel this one blowing up!
I’m not an expert on this, but I have a few suggestions that are purely gameplay wise. When playing a game such as say, breath of the wild, you may begin to notice the sheer amount of features, like spreading fire, heat rising, heat and cold, and lightning. These are absolutely amazing in games. If you can add some minor things that make the game feel sort of alive and always changing, here are a few suggestions. First off: dry season, fires have a chance of spreading in dry plains, not near houses. Second: trees, if there’s one thing trees do, it’s grow. Make trees occasionally pop up, and maybe a few stages for trees, such as ancient trees that can fall over and die. Third: NPCs in weather, maybe they go inside in rain, or play outside if they’re children. Fourth and finally: temperature, clothing, being inside city limits, or fires can affect the Sapiens temperature. Thanks man, looks amazing.
Quite lovely. As modular and flexible as it is, I can see Sapiens, over decades of development, getting further into human history and technology.
And as for feedback: the land seems flat and same-ish. Contrast that to Minecraft's tall hills, cliffs, revenes. Might be a tall order co code, but that, and some hanging vegetation would bring the look to another level.
I have noticed this game on and off in the last years, thanks for giving an overview of your progress. It is also very interesting to hear your thoughts and considerations during development, it gives insight in the process of game development as well as in your personal way of approaching this process. I am especially looking forward to this because you aim to release it with VR, the game looks like it will be great in VR!
This is just awesome. I'd even pay 50€ to play it. Love it man!
The most important feedback I can note is that being a solo developer on a game this stunning is definitely a strong voice of encouragement to aspiring gamedevs. Staying committed to a project especially for those just starting out is a challenge one im sure the majority of people watching have faced. So my feedback is to keep moving on it shows others that hard work pays off.
Really inspiring to watch this. Been watching your videos for about a year now. Crazy what you've accomplished so far. Can't wait to play one day. Wishlisted months ago.
The game still needs some time and I will buy it when it is in beta testing.
Here are some recommended things:
-Nomadic people which can either integrate to become apart of the time or raid, or just trade.
-Different skin tones of people, depending on where you are people will be either browner or whiter.
-Multiplayer mode, you can rage war on random people if you feel like and make allies with them and trade with them.
-Different architecture styles.
-Regional languages and Dialects.
Sorry for asking too much but I seem they will make the game alot better.
thats racist
How?
Regional languages and Dialects? Why?? WHY??
@@vanillawaffle1499 Why should this be racist? Wouldn't it be more racist if he wouldn't add diffrent skin tons?
@@mrtuttookey1720 Not being racist it just adds realism.
Wow! That music is sounding like a perfect fit. It reminds me of Disney's Dinosaur movie soundtrack by James Newton Howard. Really impressed with all of your work and good luck in the future!
This is actually a really cool project. And seeing a solo developer create something of this scale is really impressive. Also seeing how the project evolves from start is really entertaining!
This is SO COOL. As someone who has just barely touched Unity and played with it's potential, you've inspired me to really put some time into it, not because I think it will be lucrative, but because I see how much of a labor of love this can be and the satisfaction that can be taken from just making something awesome. Thank you!
Looking great!
You are such a badass. thanks for sharing your journey.
It’s looking great Dave. Keep up the great work! I started watching shortly after your 4 year update and you’ve made so much progress in this last year. It’s really coming together. I can’t wait to play it and I look forward to watching your progress in the next year. I’ve learned so much about game development from your videos. Thanks for sharing your process. Cheers!
This is so amazing seeing how far this has come. I can't believe it's been 5 years! I remember watching your world generation and was in awe. Added to my wishlist. :)
Honestly can't wait for this game
This is not only a game, it is a work of art. Absolutely beautiful. I know you said you don’t have a patreon, but if you share a link for donations or a way to send some funds, I’d love to buy you a beer or pizza or something!
Wishlisted the game and I am going to be watching all the dev vlogs this weekend. Have a happy holiday!
MrJonnyPasta he doesn’t like the way of donating money. He also isn’t in a financial struggle with some popular games published
Been watching since that video went semi viral, and it’s so insane to see how much has changed and just how much you have done, even with more frequent updates on the discord it still seems so fast for 1 person, mad respect.
This whole video series tracking development has been an inspiration to me as someone getting in to games development, thank you so much for sharing the process with us! I can't wait to play the game when it's done
I'd love to play a game like this! The music sounds phenomenal!
I just love it all, as a starting game designer, all of the stuff that you did is really amazing. How did you learn it? Did you have a previous experience or you just learned on the go?
I started small, making little games, teaching myself to code by reading a few books, doing online tutorials, and experimenting with examples. And then I just kept doing it, taking on bigger and bigger projects and learning as I went :)
Loving the series, you really inspire me to have my own ambitions in game development and I'm excited to see the progress.
I’m so extremely excited for this game. I’ve been following about a year and have had it wishlisted and I just cannot wait for release! Really great work on everything this year. Have a great Christmas and New Years.
I'm excited to see what can be done for the end game. I feel the best games have a very strong end game which provides replayability. I'm wondering what kind of interactions there might be between tribes, what the final tribe state might look like, what the technology looks like at the end.
I love everything about sapiens, but I'm constantly wondering what the hook is that'll bring me back once I've "finished" with building a tribe.
You should:
-make an achievement system
-create an animation for unlocking new builds.
-add new builds
-hype it up for other people to play it
- add more fluent animations
-create a reporting system
- semi-frequent updates
Makes no sense?
@@popinmo does it?
@@lemonlizard1 you cant ask for more updates and ask for new stuff
@@popinmo He means after the game is released/finished/out of beta or alpha.
@@cuddlecreeper8 yea but after thay phase the game could be anywhere it could be a diffrent game type by then and all this stuff wouldnt make sense ethier by then as its been to long
This was a fun watch, thank you. And the game looks so good too.
Fantastic work Dave. Inspirational. I enjoyed the format of this vid. Must have been a lot of fun for you to build a progression vid too!
@Dave Frampton did you have a fix "image" on you mind when you start this project? if so,did you have to compromise something from the original "image" that you had in mind?and if so,dos that discourages you some time?
As a solo developer do you some times feels unmotivated about your project?and if so,what do you do to get motivate again?
I didn't have anything particular fixed, no. Initially I was just creating the planet renderer. But when I started thinking about gameplay, I guess I was thinking something along the lines of Factorio meets Minecraft, but played as a god game. I had a lot of ideas around how the player would interact with the world and progress, and how lots of the mechanics would work, like having stockpiles and things being transported individually by conveyor belt or by hand. But the theme didn't get locked in until quite a bit later.
So far I haven't had motivation issues, I've actually looked forward to working on it every step of the way. But I have had motivation issues in the past on other games, and I keep wondering if it might happen again. I think working on something you really feel passionate about and would want to play yourself makes a big difference.
He started the project as a terrain engine so imagine the "image" he had! Just terrain!
@@majicDave Factorio meets Minecraft? Looks more like a Dwarf Fortress style game but more relaxing like say Banished or Unreal World.
Have you thought about adding a multiplayer system with other interaction between other tribes?
That's a cool idea but I don't know if it's too late for integrating multiplayer-abilities into his engine. Some games like "they are billions" couldn't update their game with such modes because the basic calculations of the game were optimized for singleplayer without synchronizing all tasks for more then one system at a time.
The Description answers that:
"In Sapiens, evolve your primitive hunter gatherers through thousands of years of technological advancement. Feed, protect and grow your tribe, build towns and industry, and advance through the ages in this first person civilization building god game for PC. Play with your friends in co-operative or competitive multiplayer, all on a procedurally generated planet larger than Earth. "
@@Danutz214 Nice!
I’m glad to hear co-op game play. I’m done with PvP
I’m glad to hear co-op game play. I’m done with PvP
Incredible work! So glad to see you wrote everything from scratch instead of using a game engine! Way to go! One super nit-picky thing I spotted: in the final shot in the video, where the camera pans around, you can see a lot of trees in the distance, next to the river: they all seem to be organised in lines, as if the PRNG is off, or the placement within a hexagon is non-random.
I love the path of stones out the door at the end
Its beautiful, you just need to add more and more features 😀
How much faster/slower do you think this would be if you hadn't made your own engine and had to cater for that?
I actually don't think I could have got this far without making my own engine. The size of the world means my requirements are really too different from what generic engines offer. But if I sacrificed the world scale and a few other things, I'm still not sure it would have made a massive difference. The majority of the work was creating the game itself, with less than half of the work creating my own engine, and I probably would have spent a decent chunk of that wrestling with Unity or UE4. So all up, I'd say it would have been roughly the same.
That ending view and music was awesome ! I can't wait to see future progress, you're taking your project in such a nice direction :)
One thing I learned in my zoology class is that one key feature of human development was the ability to run upright. Humans can run for very long distances. Early humans would hunt by just chasing animals for miles until the animals got too tired to run away. This influenced nomadic lifestyles because tribes were literally following the herds.
I am suprised that he survived 5 years of indie game development, if it was me i would've quit after 2 months
if you will have VR support is it possible to publish it to oculus quest?
If it has VR support, it can pretty much be used with any VR headset, the problem will just be whether the hardware can handle the game. Quest is really bad compared to other headsets, and might not be worth it to spend time on the game just to get quest to run it well.
When my phone lights up with your CZcams's upload notification, I am always ecstatic to watch and find out what you're working on next. Keep up the great game and great video content. Love it.
Your vids have a similar vibe to the alpha days of Minecraft when notch would announce his updates and be met with lots of support and praise.
So this isn’t the type of game where you control a character right ? It’s more like age of mythology or civilization game ?
XxaaccoolL yeah
The environments look very nice, but I would say it all looks very "samey" I guess. The terrain is always desert, green grass, lake, mountains etc. and while they look good, they can get old pretty quickly.
I know the game still has a way to go and maybe this was on your checklist already, but if I would have any constructive criticism to give it would be to make every place feel at least somewhat distinct through generation. Some environmental variability that can allow for giant mountains or a desert oasis, maybe even assets that are smaller or bigger depending on some factors. How about different coloured dirt, grass or sand?
That way choosing a spot on the map is more than just "green place" or "yellow place" but "wow those trees are massive" or "that mountain is incredibly big." Something to make your people feel small in a big world, or going in the other direction maybe some smaller things like rare assets. A strange looking tree, a deformed rock, ancient bones.
Really I'm just throwing ideas out there, but all this stuff would make each place feel different, whereas now you go to one side of the planet and it looks the same as the other.
I love your videos man, I watch every single one of them and have been following you for a little while now, keep it coming.
You have my full respect for all your skills and dedication... The game looks awesome and I really love your "feature creepienes" for simulating the whole earth and I am psyched for the music! Keep up the great work man!
It's truly amazing how much progress you've managed to make on your own in just a year. I really like the openness and honesty about where you're at with the game and what you think needs to happen next. I have to agree that I see a chain of good decision making from your part. That is unfortunately fairly rare within the gaming industry. Thank you for working against that trend!
Can you take over someone
Or are you just a God?
You don't control the sapiens directly, no. It's a God game.
@@majicDave oh ok thanks
Been here with you for the past couple of years Dave gl with the future! Am super excited to see how it finally turns out
Congrats on the progress. Falling in love with Sapiens more and more each video i watch.
The modding support for this game is going to be insane. This game seriously could become one of the next huge open world survival games! The best thing about modding means that the game could be almost turned into different types of games i.e rpg, surivival, campaign etc. Can't wait to see future progress.
Love the village at the end. It gives a nice feeling that Sapiens has finally arrived at the "game" status, even if at very early stage. Looking forward to see game content pop up over the next months. And weather, can't wait to see clouds... Thanks for being such a responsive developer as well. I hope your community work will pay off in the end as well. Now enjoy your holidays and your family life. Best wishes for 2020!
This game actually looks so dope take all of my money. Its obvious how much you care about this game which is exactly what i look for in games because passion = quality
Good luck dude! Hopefully I hear from you or your game some other time. Even if I don't, you sound like a great guy and I bet whatever you'll do it will turn out great if you continue putting in pasion. Have a great year!
I just found this for the first time and it looks good man. You got a new sub and I'm looking forward to the finished product.
Thanks for sharing this with us! I find these kinds of games super interesting, and it's so refreshing to be able to see someone solo-dev a game!
Amazing work, mate! Really enjoyed watching you progress and I think this will be quite motivational for less experienced devs, not give up on their projects! Keep it going and thanks for your work!
Awesome seeing the full journey so far! 😁❤ Incredible how it's starting to piece together 💪
I love to see the progress this game makes and how diligent you work on it, even after 5 years. I‘m so excited to play Sapiens. Finally a new really good game with some wonderful new concepts and ideas. We havn‘t had that since Minecraft, i guess. Thank you for your nice work, Dave! I wish you and everyone else a merry Christmas :)
Man it's been great following the development for the past few months. You've inspired me to actually sit down and code even when I'm not feeling it, oh the productivity gains! Thanks a bunch.
I do have one suggestion that's probably already on your todo list, adding an option to objects to tell it to start with an initial random rotation while placing them and then you rotate it afterwards. For example, trees could start with a random rotation around just the one axis while rocks start in a purely random rotation. This would allow more natural placement of foliage and rocks without having to manually rotate them and ensure you don't end up with 8 identically placed rocks in a row.
been following since late 2016... so much progress!!! i remember watching when you actually added the AI Sapiens to the engine! Amazing work. Cant wait to see what this becomes
This game looks so awesome, I love it! It has so much potential and you could add so much things and thats beautiful! Keep up the amazing work and take your christmas break
And the new soundtrack at the end is amazing, hopefully we can buy it as well
Good man, I love that you kept a record of your progress! Thanks for sharing with us, you've done a great job
Wonderful work Dave, have a great holiday off, hope for the best next year!
What a project! Really enjoyed the video, you should truly be proud of this!
What a wonderful way of showing how the project developed, really appreciate this video!
really looking forward to playing this. thanks for showing us how you built the game and the thought process involved.
This is looking great so far man! Good luck going forward!
Amazing Dave, liked/subbed. Been following this for ages now!
You're actually looking like a professional developer by now! I seriously can't wait for the release! I have it on my wishlist already
Aye brub love the vid, long time lurker here. You're a big inspiration to my indie dev journey. Love sapiens cant wait for it to be out!
Glad this popped up on my 'suggested videos' playlist. Adding your game to my steam wishlist to follow :-)
Been here since the four years update, and it's absolutely amazing to see the progress made on this beautiful game. Dave, I truly believe you are making one of the best games out there. I am so sold on this game and I cannot wait to try it.
I think this video really did you a favor in terms of publicity. It's common to see indie game videos sure.. But seeing the history of where the game has been, it's often easier to see in which route it will progress.
By the sounds of it, you're also passionate about what you're doing which means that you're very likely to finish the game, and maybe even continue post-release to give more content.
Hope it'll work out well for you :)
Sapiens is not a game, it is a work of art. I truly wish you massive success. My hope to one day see your creative vision and ability leading a team of like minded individuals in developing more of these thoughtfully designed and skillfully crafted masterpieces is me being totally selfish. And I'm totally OK with it.👏👍